The present invention relates to a printer-incorporated electronic camera capable of instantly printing an image of an image-captured object onto a self-development type photosensitive printing medium with the incorporated printer.
An electronic camera has a superior advantage to a conventionally widely-used camera using a silver-salt type film in that it is possible to instantly regenerate and display a captured image. Further, when this electronic camera incorporates a printer capable of instantly printing a captured image onto a suitable receiving medium, the range of application and utilization of the electronic camera expands substantially. From this viewpoint, a printer-incorporated electronic camera has been developed for practical use.
A conventional printer-incorporated electronic camera has the following problems. This type of electronic camera has a slit-shaped paper exit opening for removing paper printed with a captured image from a case of a camera main body to the outside. In many cases, this paper exit opening is provided on the upper surface of the case of the camera main body to avoid friction with the surrounding as far as possible at the time of the removal of the printed paper. In general, this paper exit opening has a size to allow a printed paper to be removed and is provided always in an open state.
Therefore, according to the conventional printer-incorporated electronic camera, there is a risk that external light enters the camera main body from the paper take-out opening, and unnecessarily exposes the photosensitive surface of the printing paper. Further, there is also a risk of dust, sand, grit, particles, and like contaminants entering the camera main body from the paper take-out opening and causing unexpected trouble.
As a conventional electronic camera of this type, there is also one that has a protection sheet for protecting the photosensitive surface of a printed paper that is removed through the paper exit opening.
The electronic camera having a protection sheet is structured such that a protection sheet wound up in a roll shape is mounted near the paper exit opening in advance, and when the printed paper is removed, the front end of the printed paper extends a free end of the protection sheet so that the protection sheet covers the photosensitive surface of the printed paper.
The electronic camera having a protection sheet solves the above problem to some extent as compared with an electronic camera having no protection sheet. However, as the protection sheet is not designed for closing the opening, there is no guarantee that the paper exit opening is always securely closed by the protection sheet wound up in the roll shape. Further, as the protection sheet has flexibility, the roll diameter of the protection sheet in a wound-up state is not constant. As a result, there arises a variance in the size and shape of a gap generated between the wound-up protection sheet and the paper exit opening.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer-incorporated electronic camera having the following advantages:
(a) Risk that external light enters from a paper take-out opening and unnecessarily exposes the photosensitive surface of a printing paper contained therein is minimized, as is the risk that dust, sand, grit, particles, and like contaminants enter the camera main body; and
(b) There is no increase in the size of the camera main body and no increase in its cost.
In order to achieve the above objects, there is described herein an electronic camera capable of printing an image of an image-captured object onto a printing paper and transporting the printed paper to the outside of a case of a camera main body, the electronic camera comprising:
a paper exit opening for removing the printed paper provided on the upper surface of the case of the camera main body as viewed from the front side of the camera main body;
a protection sheet having a base end fixed to the inside of the paper exit opening, with a free end excluding the base end always wound up in a roll shape by a self-restoring force so as to be accommodated inside the case, and having the free end in the wound-up state to be extended by the front end of the printed paper when the printed paper is removed from the case to the outside so that the protection sheet covers the photosensitive surface of the paper; and
an open-and-close lid having one end edge of a square plate axially supported to be rotatable to the case so that the paper exit opening is closed from the outside of the case in a state that the protection sheet is accommodated within the case by being wound up in a roll shape.
In a desirable embodiment of the present invention, the electronic camera has a linking mechanism for linking the protection sheet to the open-and-close lid so that the open-and-close lid is opened or closed interlocked with a movement of the protection sheet.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.